Tracking the Tigers with MLB.com beat writer Jason Beck.

Back on the Verlander (World Baseball Classic) watch

Realistically, there are two things to watch for with Justin Verlander this spring, but with no contract talks going on (at least from what Verlander said last week), the World Baseball Classic is the one generating news. The latest update came Wednesday from CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman, who cites sources saying USA Baseball officials are growing optimistic Verlander will opt to take part.

It’s slightly surprising, given what Verlander was saying last week about waiting to see how he feels in early throwing workouts. But with Kris Medlen and Andy Pettitte both reportedly out, Team USA desperately needs starting pitching, and it isn’t hard to envision pressure being applied to Verlander, who played for Team USA in international play when he was in college and enjoyed the experience.

Final rosters have to be set February 20, so Verlander has just about a week of formal workouts plus early throwing sessions to gauge his arm, which he said last week will be the determining factor for him. It’s not simply about making sure his arm is fine. If he’s going to pitch in the event, he said, he’s going to have to be able to throw without holding anything back or pacing himself. So he’s going to have to be ahead of schedule compared to his normal spring routine.

“In Spring Training games, you can afford to hold a little bit back,” Verlander said last Thursday. “But all of a sudden, you put yourself in a situation like that, and it’s pedal-to-the-metal. There’s no holding anything back. When you’re playing for your country, it means something.”

Add in the fact that Verlander began his throwing program later this offseason to let his arm rest after another long postseason run, and even Verlander admitted last Thursday that it should theoretically make him less likely to take part. But it’s hard to tell Verlander he can’t do something.

The Tigers don’t have a say in this one, and even if they did, they wouldn’t try to tell Verlander what to do. The decision is all his, and I expect he’ll get a slew of questions about it for the first week of camp.

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“If I stay healthy, I might be back there 130, 140 games,” Avila said, “and that’s my job. That’s what I want to do.”
Last year he was 176/.304/.235 vs LHP .He wont see many LHS and the Tigers played 51 games vs LHP last year ,so 140? no way

I agree with you and concluded last year that Avila had essentially turned into a platoon player. Beck later said something similar in one of his bogs about AA’s role. AA needs to step it up and better define himself as a top tier player who can hit both LHS and RHS.

But I do disagree with your take in reference to the WS sweep by the Giants. The defense did not let the Tigers down. The offense went in the toilet. In their 4 game set, each team had only 1 error. However, the Giants had 16 runs on 32 hits, whereas the Tigers got shut out twice and scored only 6 runs on a total of 20 hits. The lack of offense was a big elephant sitting in the middle of the room.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing earlier: Fans complain about the WBC not meaning anything to these players until one of their guys decides he wants to take part. I haven’t seen one word from Tigers fans today supporting the idea of Verlander taking part. Everything ranges from concern to dread.

There was one: the Baseball World Cup played between 1938 and 2011( Smyly played in the last one) organized by IBAF won by the UK the first time .
Won by the USA four. Last time in 2009
Won 25 times by Cuba( they sent professional( they were amateurs in name only like URSS hockey players ) players vs amateur from the rest of the countries. Cuba was winning it it once and again before the revolution anyway.
Venezuela won three times, journalist here only remember the 1941 victory because Venezuela won in La Habana.
Venezuelans players were not allowed to sign as professional until playing in competitions like the BWC . The end of that preposterous limitation is one of the main factors in the current venezuelans players boom.
Nobody cared about it but a little clique of old timers

Some posters recently discussed baseball movies so I picked up a new release called Trouble with the Curve. It resonated with me along character presentations as well as the storyline. Went to a local university gme several years back. Lots of grumpy old scouts were ther to see the starter, a legit top round guy. Longtime scout, Joe Henderson, sat with me. He had good credentials including a son who garnered MVP votes as an MLB player, not to mention menoring guys like Eddie Matthews and hooking others like Nokes and John the Count. Anyway, Joe liked the pitcher as a given. But he noted the catcher who cold not hit a lick was a prospect as a picher because of his laser arm. The upsht…The pitcher was drafted in the first rond, but blew out his arm. Cannot recall his name. The catcher was eventually converted into a relief . His name? Troy Percival.

I enjoy watching the WBC, just because it’s baseball. I would hate to see JV, or any other player, ruin himself for the MLB season, though. If I remember right, some former Tigers had down years after participating.
-Mikehttp://minoringinbaseball.com/

Verlander will do what he thinks is best….hmmm…I don’t know him personally but so far I’m not impressed. His ability to think beyond himself and get the team a win in the WS leads me to believe he has ego issues. His talent is beyond question. His determination and preparedness is very professional. I see Verlander in the same light I see the Yankee Shortstop. His personal life is questionable and without that solid relationship, his focus and intention is lacking.

Richard, Trouble with the Curve is a very nice movie. As a father with two young girls (14 and 12) who both enjoy baseball, it was a great watch for us. I, especially, enjoyed the movie’s blatant attack at sabermetrics and the evaluation of talent from a computer screen. I showed them Moneyball a few days later and my girls noticed the same thing. As a point, before we started watching Moneyball I said 3 names to them: Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito. At the end of the movie, I asked them if they remember those names being mentioned in the movie. And they were not. They were the keys to the A’s success that year; not some side arming reliever or Hattieburg learning first base. Moneyball was a nice little story but it is what I would call a work of “selective” non fiction.
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Go Tigers.
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— Bob

Moneyball had a lot of promotion, but that’s about it. The story was bogus and the only good baseball shown was the actual game footage. The acted out baseball scenes looked terrible because of the dim lighting, which the director said he actually wanted. Turning a mid-season winning streak, no matter how historic, into a “Rocky” like drama was silly. I give it half a star. If they’re going to do fiction, don’t dress it up as factual. May as well watch Ronald Reagan in “The Winning Team” instead.

Justin Verlander was second for Cy Young, 8th for MVP.
He was 89th in MLB in RS making beyond impossible to replicate 2011 but he was close to.
2-0 0.56 vs A´s 1-0 1.08 vs the Evil Empire. Yes, he failed in the WS because he was out of sync due to the long rest. But they were there thanks to Miguel and him.

Fielder went .071/.133/.071/.205 making easier to pitch to Miguel. Blame him and Lamont for sending Fielder to home. And neither is dating a supermodel
Upton is a homegrown talent and if she caused his second best season , kudos to her.

That’s actually something they’ve done quite a bit in recent years. Usually their first homestand is entirely day games, and they’ve had a West Coast trip early in the season in a lot of recent seasons. I want to say there was a season fairly recently when they didn’t have a night game at home until the end of April. The one big change this year is that by opening in Minnesota with all day games, they won’t have a regular night game anywhere for a couple weeks.

Mindy Kaling on Twitter asked for our favorite 30 Rock moments. I started the countdown with Aerosmith at Cobo Arena as #30 and was all the way down to the Who at the Silverdome before I realized she was talking about the TV show. ;-)

I watched Dave Parker here in Venezuela. For me he is the most talented player I have ever watched after Barry Bond and he wasted it.
But Alex Rodriguez must be the most wasted talent ever.He was HoF caliber SS and 3B and utterly destroyed his career without reason.
( He used the Tigers as leverage for his current contract)

Justin Verlander was born on Sunday, February 20, 1983, in Manakin Sabot, Virginia. Verlander was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on July 4, 2005, with the Detroit Tigers. His biographical data, year-by-year hitting stats, fielding stats, pitching stats (where applicable), career totals, uniform numbers, salary data and miscellaneous items-of-interest are presented by Baseball Almanac on this comprehensive Justin Verlander baseball stats page.

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